MOSCOW, Apr 18 The seventh game of the match for the world chess crown against the Chinese Ding Liren was extremely sharp and extremely tense, said the Russian grandmaster Ian Nepomniachtchi, whose words are quoted by the official Twitter account of the International Chess Federation (FIDE).
On Tuesday, the game in which the Russian played white pieces ended on the 37th move. The score in the confrontation became 4-3 in favor of Nepomniachtchi. The eighth game will take place on Thursday, the Russian will play black.
«»The whole game was extremely sharp and extremely tense. I felt that everything should be fine with me. But after his excellent 21st move, I did not know what to do. There were many risky options, but I could not understand what to do, so I made a move that slightly worsened my position,» Nepomniachtchi said.
Nepomniachtchi became a candidate for the chess crown after winning the Candidates Tournament in 2022. Since the reigning world champion Norwegian Magnus Carlsen refused to defend his title, Nepomniachtchi's opponent was Ding Liren, who took second place in the Candidates Tournament.
Nepomniachtchi is 32 years old, the Russian with 2795 points is the second in the ranking of the International Chess Federation (FIDE), 30-year-old Ding Liren is the third (2788). The Russian is the winner of the last two Candidates Tournaments, in 2021 he lost in the match for the chess crown to Carlsen (3.5-7.5).
The winner of the match will be the player who first scores at least 7.5 points. A total of 14 games are planned with classical time control, after every two games there is a day of rest. In case of a draw after 14 games, the winner will be determined by a tie-break.